Earth First! Has Released a Punk Compilation Benefit Album
Celebrating 34 years in print and direct action, the Earth First! Journal is the voice of the radical direct action environmental movement. Punk is an artistic movement founded in the same era on the principles of resistance and, as a culture, continues to boldly challenge a destructive system. The EF!J collective presents this compilation of punk bands that share a no-compromise attitude towards defense of the living world, in order to draw these two powerful forms of communication together. All profits from the album’s sales go to Earth First! Media projects, organizing expenses, and legal funds.
The compilation comes with a book featuring exclusive interviews between band members, heads of punk labels like Will Butler from To Live a Lie, and a former Earth First! Journal co-editor and contributor, MJ. This album was released through All We Know Records, an independent DIY label out of Miami, FL.
This limited-edition press of only 1,000 copies are each hand-numbered, and they’re going fast!
Track Listing
1. Masakari – XVI. Rapid Dominance
2. Autarkeia – Saving Seeds
3. Baker Acted – Hours That Never Add Up to Comfort
4. Oiltanker – Ends Meet
5. Recreant – Burn
6. Gattaca – Sešli Jsme z Cesty
7. ACXDC – Crux
8. Autarch – Shepherds
9. Landbridge – Manufacturing Greed
10. Closet Burner – Apathy
11. Torch Runner – Feeding
12. Deathrats – Crutch
13. Breag Naofa – II.
14. Black Hole of Calcutta – Cirrhosis
15. Cloud Rat – 6 Mile
16. Iskra – Machine Infernale
17. Sin Orden – Tierra Indigena
18. Oi Polloi – Doigh Eile
19. Adelit@s – Contra el Olvido
20. Rat Storm – Refuse to Be Silenced
21. Beartrap – Human Factory Farm
22. Cizaña – Bosque
23. Agathocles – It Is What It Is
24. Shadow Of The Destroyer-Dark Days
25. Appalachian Terror Unit – We Will Continue to Break the Law and Destroy Property Until We Win
To Order
http://earthfirstjournal.org/store
http://allweknowrecs.blogspot.com
Earth First! Journal
PO Box 964, Lake Worth, FL 33460
For more information, contact
Ashley: [email protected]
Molly Jane: [email protected]
Early reviews and sample interviews after the jump…
Reviews
Collin from Autarch:
Autarch
“Just made it rain using 20 No Compromise comps that just came into my possession briefly. If you like hardcore music and aren’t a complete idiot then you should pick one of these up while they’re still around…I’ll be making it rain comps and taking selfies until they’re all gone.”
Greg Mazur from Deathrats:
Greg as a shorty, rockin EF! gear
“Instead of fairy tales, the stories I was told growing up were about Earth First! and other radical movements. These stories will forever shape how I see and interact with the world and the environment we live in. Most importantly, that without respect of the environment, we are doomed.”
Interviews:
Interview with Oiltanker:
Oiltanker
EF!J: Why do you support Earth First!?
Oiltanker: Any organization that has actively defended the environment for 30 or so years deserves support, especially ones as uncompromising as Earth First. And organizations like this need all the help they can get with some of the threats to the environment these days.
EF!J: Share how you express your politics in art and life?
Oiltanker: Obviously we’re all in a band, and we have messages in there even if they are vague. Outside of that, each one of us has our own thing; some of us make art, some of us write. We all try to learn and make/maintain what we can. Some of us brew booze, and some work on cars and motorcycles. But ultimately, I think resistance can be expressed simply by doing what you want.
EF!J: Can you speak to the ways you view the role of corporate greed and apathy in the face of ecological destruction?
Oiltanker: Both are the cause of it, it just depends on how you look at it. The difference with apathy and ignorance is it’s hard to look outside of your own box when you’re weighed down with every day trauma and misery. That’s why it’s so important to find something you love to do, so you don’t feel defeated every day of your life.
Interview with Sin Orden:
Sin Orden
EF!J: In your song, “Tierra Indigena”, you speak to colonialism’s destruction of the earth, including human life. In what ways do you see colonialism alive in today’s society?
Sin Orden: In today’s society colonialism has taken a new name, it is free market capitalism. This new form of colonialism (capitalism) uses power and wealth to take control of land and people. It destroys local economies with their competitive lower priced goods, forces countries to lease or sell their land to pay off debt, and creates territories in which the host country has no authority in. In these territories is where all human and environmental rights are violated and profit is created. Free market capitalism has been the platform for both political parties, with catch phrases like “healthy competition.” In this healthy competition there are winners and losers: Consumers and maquiladora (sweatshop) owners are the winners, and the third world countries that host these companies and the slave laborers who work them are whom are losing.
EF!J: What are examples you see as connections between borders, immigration, and environmental justice?
Sin Orden: All can be factored in to survival and greed. For instance, if someone has lost their farm because of any free trade agreement (or free trade zones), they must make hard decisions on either staying in their home land and working in the company that put them out, or migrating to the U.S. where they are happily willing to employ anyone whom they don’t have to give any workers rights to. In the Caribbean and some Central American countries remittance is the only form of income that families receive for survival. Foreign interest has damaged their economy so much that they can’t receive adequate resources, and are forced to depend on the family member in the U.S. or Europe. Borders are used as a buffer to the demand of unskilled workers, when there is a need for workers (during WWI, WWII, etc.) the borders are wide open with official documents and policies in place. But when the demand is low (depression, scapegoat for other injustices) borders help dehumanize and criminalize immigrants and all people who look the part. The environment gets destroyed by the unnatural ways it is used: the non-native crop, waste being poured onto the land and water, and the deforestation of many rain forests. Like I mentioned before, greed causes these injustices and survival forces people to leave and search for a way to provide for your family.
EF!J: There is a wave of xenophobic, profit-driven, and racist anti-immigration laws being passed in the US. What attitudes should we strive to be aware of within our own communities/scenes to politicize ourselves against the driving ideologies behind these genocidal doctrines?
Sin Orden: Laws and policies are being passed because of fear of power shift. Amerikans that push these kinds of policies to become laws fear of a brown invasion, in which they will have to treat all people as equal. Racial profiling, cuts to resources, and even banning books are laws in this country. This of course is not new in our history. Laws have been created before then ratified as people fought against it. Maybe that’s why they are banning books, because we would point out all the previous injustices done to our people, or the programs that pushed for immigration to this country. We believe that education is very important. Educating yourselves on the untold history of Latin@s in this country, but also on the U.S. foreign policies in Latin America.
Understanding U.S. foreign policy will give you a good sense of why Amerikan intervention causes people to leave their homeland. What also might be controversial for some radicals, is that if you’re living in one of these racist/xenophobic states, you got to be informed about these racist politicians and get them out of office. Help end racist terror in you communities via local politics, Yes we mean vote! Especially if you have the privilege to vote, because of course the people who are affected by these laws have no voting rights. Remember, as long as you’re white and a citizen, none of these laws affect you, but if you are trying to build solidarity with Latin@s and are striving to create an alternative to capitalism we must all work together and fight in solidarity with all our struggles.
Interview with Nathalie from Rat Storm:
Rat Storm
EF!J: Biodiversity is something we celebrate in nature. Industrialized society teaches us to contain, compartmentalize, and domesticate nature. Do you feel there is a connection between this and the creation of a gender binary?
Nathalie (Rat Storm): Perhaps. That’s a tough question. I think I would probably say it differently, but I think the idea would be the same. I don’t think that it is necessarily the nature of industrialized society to be this, but I think it is the nature of the industrialized society that we live in. What I mean, is that I think that industrialized society can be positive. I think the gender binary is more of a product of power structures. I think it is that when hierarchical power structures are created, they self-perpetuate by creating a culture that, to use your words, teaches us to contain, compartmentalize, and domesticate the “other.” The power structure that has been created in industrialized society – where technology and industry has an assumed prowess – has led to this relationship with nature. This is analogous with the power structure that exists in gender. The creation of the gender binary aids those in power in limiting the power of women or any person that does not fit into the binary mold. I think that the gender binary is perpetuated and held up by those in power because it limits those that challenge the system. This is truly analogous to our treatment of nature. Humans have distanced themselves from “animals” by creating a language and culture that continually differentiates humans from animals. This is a similar binary system that is built on similarly faulty principles. Humans are biologically animals, but when we admit that, it causes us to also need to examine our treatment of other animals… and thus challenges our assumed power. With the gender binary, the more men are distanced from women, the easier it is to justify the inequity and injustices that occur. The assumption of binary gender, of course ignores the fact that our concepts of gender only have a marginal biological connection – meaning that most “male” or “female” traits have very little link to biological differences – yet we treat those that can not fit into the mold as though they are somehow less of a person.
EF!J: Why do you feel it is personally important to be a part of a queer positive band?
Nathalie (Rat Storm): I think this is important because bands and music for many people can be a gateway of exposure to new ideas. I grew up in a small town and my introduction to many of the ideas and philosophies by which I now live my life was through music. I’m sure I learned more by reading and speaking with other people than I did from the music itself, but the music was something that allowed me to hear about new ideas. Music is just one form of artistic expression…for me it falls somewhere between abstract expression (such as a painting) and more tangible concrete expression (like writing a book). It’s a lot about aesthetics but there is a lot of room to inject content into it as well. Queer issues, or issues relating to gender and sexuality, are particularly important for me because I think they are issues of basic human rights and human identity. While punk music tends to be progressive, there are still a lot of homophobic/transphobic/generally negative ideas that are floating around, and for me, it is important to reach out to my community and try to cause a positive influence on these issues.
Interview with Donny from Cizaña:
Cizaña
EF!J: In southern Arizona, where the attempts of politicians as well as the US and Arizona governments to “crack down on immigration” are such a present thing, how does that impact efforts to do environmental work in the area?
Donny (Cizaña): Obviously, ecosystems don’t follow borders. Fencing put up to “protect the border” regularly stops animals — and sometimes even water — from crossing between the countries. As a result, animals, like their human counterparts, are divided unnaturally from their relatives across the wall. For instance, “the last jaguar” in the US has been found (and killed) every few years since the border militarization has accelerated, while a much larger population still lives on the Mexican side. Additionally, the abundance of Border Patrol and other agents (and all of the high-tech gadgets that accompany them) makes anybody in the border area for any reason suspicious and potentially vulnerable to a military-style interrogation.
EF!J: If a jaguar could leap from its perch and mercilessly attack anybody, who would you pick to be attacked and why?
Donny (Cizaña): Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and former Arizona state senator Russell Pearce are leading figureheads of a movement of older, wealthier, scared, racist white people working to secure white supremacy in an area that has only been a state for 101 years. Ideally, the jaguar would maul each of them, inspiring other colonizers to abandon the state, too.
Many more exclusive in-depth interviews with the bands come in the compilation booklet.
Order yours today and support the Earth First! Movement!
